


May We Meet Again

by LadyShadowWalker



Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Slightly Canon-Divergent, rejoins canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 09:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5329295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowWalker/pseuds/LadyShadowWalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This originated from a tumblr prompt about what might have happened if Lincoln had taken Octavia to the dropship instead of the riverbank at the end of We Are Grounders, Part 2 but it turned into an Octavia & Artigas bromance.</p><p>Slightly canon-divergent. The story rejoins canon at Many Happy Returns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Everybody Get Inside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened if Lincoln took Octavia to the dropship instead of the riverbanks.

 

* * *

“Everybody get inside, now!” Clarke screamed as Lincoln brought Octavia through the side entrance to their camp.

Lincoln carried her to the dropship’s ramp where Miller stood guard with one arm hanging dejectedly by his side, his shoulder dripping blood. The other arm held a gun and he briefly aimed it at Lincoln before noticing Octavia cradled in his arms.

“Go!” Miller shouted as he continued herding others into the dropship, prepared to shoot at any Grounders who made it past the grenades or the Gunners protecting their retreat.

Lincoln brought her through the doorway, pushing past the parachute that served as a curtain. He stopped just inside when several kids screamed at seeing him, raising their weapons threateningly. Harper hurried over.

“Here.” Harper grabbed Lincoln’s elbow and escorted them through the terrified crowd to where Raven sat propped up and unconscious against the far wall. Lincoln carefully set her down next to Raven and began to move away.

“No!” Octavia clung to his shirt. “Don’t leave me!” She still didn’t see her brother, she had an arrow in her leg, and she was pretty certain she was going to pass out in a second. Lincoln could leave her after she was unconscious.

“I need to find my medicine pouch for your leg.” Lincoln cupped her face, brushing hair from her eyes as he held her gaze. “I will be right back.”

Her head lolled back on her shoulders, her muscles feeling like sludge. She forced her eyes open, using all her effort to straighten her head again. Lincoln was no longer in her line of vision.

“Hey.” Harper took Octavia’s left hand in hers as she wedged herself between Octavia and Raven.

Octavia licked her lips, trying to form words through the sleepiness of her thoughts. “Linc….”

“I’m right here.” His wonderful voice came from her right. She tried turning her head to see him but it was so much effort.

She heard the whooshing sound of the dropship door closing. “Where’s…where’s Bellamy?”

“Jasper, now!” Clarke shouted.

“Where’s Bellamy?” Octavia asked them again, more urgently. Lincoln tried to shove something into her mouth. “No!”

Lincoln pinched her chin firmly, pushing the rim of a cup against her lips. “Octavia, you need to drink this in case the arrowhead is poisoned.”

She begrudgingly went to take a sip, knowing her fever and drowsiness were most likely caused from poison coursing through her system. Instead, he poured all the contents down her throat. She gagged but he held her mouth closed with his palm under her chin, forcing her to swallow the vile concoction.

“I had to save her,” Lincoln said, but he wasn’t looking at her.

She followed his gaze, seeing Anya, Lincoln’s leader, standing before them, her hands tied in front of her and surrounded by her enemy. Octavia tilted her head back toward Lincoln, trying to reach her hand up to his face, wanting to let him know how much he mattered to her for giving up everything to be with her.

“Lincoln.” She sighed as he wavered before her eyes, glimmering like a reflection in a puddle.

* * *

She screamed herself awake when her world lurched violently up, jarring the arrow sticking out of her leg, and then fell back down into an eerie silence. She started retching from the pain.

“We gotta get it out of her.” She heard Lincoln talking to someone and then he was pulling her onto his lap. She cried out, her head spinning from the movement, her leg on fire and throbbing.

“Hey, Angel?” Lincoln’s voice was in her ear; his hand upon her thigh near where the arrow was sticking out of it. He poked along the entrance with something sharp, widening the hole, making her black out.

* * *

”It didn’t hit bone.” The rumble of Lincoln’s chest as he spoke brought her back to consciousness. He was talking to someone else again but Octavia couldn’t turn her head to see who.

“Lincoln.” She whimpered. She was trying to be strong but her head was foggy and she was so...so…so…warm…and…sleepy. She licked her dry lips, forcing her eyes back open. “Stop stalling and pull it out.”

A wave of pain crashed over her, leaving her gasping as Lincoln pulled the arrow from her leg, quickly covering it with a rag and applying pressure.

Clarke’s blonde head bobbed into her vision. “This is gonna hurt.”

* * *

She awoke again, still sitting on Lincoln’s lap, her face pressed into his chest, the steady sound of his heartbeat calming her as she slowly became aware. They were in the dropship, just the two of them and Raven who was still unconscious…or maybe dead. No, Octavia had to believe she was simply unconscious.

“What’s going on?” She asked as she tried to sit up. “Aah!” Her leg.

“I don’t know,” Lincoln replied. “They all left to check outside and no one has come back yet.”

The metallic clang of boots stomping up the ramp echoed into the dropship. Five men in green suits and masks carrying guns stormed in. Their guns swung around and trained on the three of them huddled in the corner.

“Mountain Men,” Lincoln whispered fearfully.

Octavia had never thought he’d be scared of anything. She clung to him tighter, whimpering as the Mountain Men charged at them. Hands grabbed her roughly, dragging her off Lincoln.

“No!” She wrestled her way free, wrapping her arms around Lincoln and clinging to him as they tried to pry her off. “Lincoln!”

“Octavia!” Lincoln cried out as he fought off two more Mountain Men when they attempted to yank him away from her.

“No!” She kicked out with her left leg, her right leg immobilized from the pain. She was losing her grip on him. She couldn’t lose him! Her hands grasped at his forearms as he held on tightly to hers. She felt something bite into her neck and a thickness entered her limbs. She fought it off just like she continued fighting them off.

Another Mountain Man joined in as they tried to tear them apart. “Octavia!” Lincoln’s arms were slipping from her fingers! “Octavia!” His fingers were sliding from hers! “OCTAVIA!” She couldn’t feel him anymore! She couldn’t feel anything anymore...her eyes were so heavy....

“Lincoln....” She exhaled his name, the barest whisper upon her lips as she sank into the deep waters of oblivion once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this, Lincoln ends up in the Cerberus program again and his story rejoins canon around [Chapter 5: First Dose is the Worst](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4886812/chapters/11300413) of Part 2 of the Lincoln Chronicles.
> 
> Chapter 2 is what would happen if Octavia was put in Quarantine. Chapter 3 is what would happen if Octavia was put in the Harvest Chamber. Chapter 4, the two AU timelines re-converge. It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure with fixed points.


	2. What Are They Doing to You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the version where Octavia ends up in Quarantine. The next chapter is the version where Octavia ends up in the Harvest Chamber.

* * *

She awoke alone in a white room with soft lighting. What the hell?

There was a sheet draped over her and she was hooked up to machines. One was pumping a clear fluid, another pumping blood. Oh, god! What the hell was happening?!?

She carefully removed the needles from her arm, applying pressure and holding her arm up to stop the bleeding. The needles continued to drip their fluids into the bed sheet. She needed to tie something around the holes; she had learned that much from Clarke. She swung her legs to the other side of the bed, sliding her body over the edge as she continued to keep her arm raised. Her feet eventually touched the ground and she stood up cautiously.

Her right leg screeched in agony. She forgot she had been shot with an arrow. At least she thought that’s what happened. Right now, she wasn’t too certain of anything. She took a step toward the door at the far end of the room, waiting for some sort of…reaction. Anything. Something to tell her what might be going on. She took another step.

Her ears started ringing and there was a pressure in her head, not unlike when she first fell to earth. Black and gray spots danced across her vision and then the floor rose up to greet her.

* * *

“You’re awake.” A voice spoke to Octavia’s right as her eyes fluttered open.

She sat up with a start, her head spinning from the movement. “Where the hell am I? What’s going on? Where’s Lincoln?”

“Calm down, Octavia. You’re safe now.” The voice spoke again. It came from a female, around Octavia’s age. “I’m Maya.” Her dark hair contrasted with her pale complexion, her veins like blue tributaries under her translucent skin. “You’re in Mount Weather. We rescued you.”

“Rescued me?” From what? Where was Lincoln? “Where’s Lincoln?”

Confusion flashed across Maya’s face. “You were injured. We had to sedate you but your body metabolized the drugs faster than we anticipated.” The girl, Maya, reached over and placed her hand on top of Octavia’s. “You’ll be fine. You just need a little more rest. You lost a lot of blood.”

Octavia pulled her hand out from under Maya’s. She didn’t trust these people; she felt like she was back on the Ark again and there was no escape. “What about the others? Where’s Lincoln?”

“Once you’re cleared from Medical, I’ll take you to see the rest, okay?” Maya leaned over and turned a knob on a machine. “Now go back to sleep.”

Octavia’s eyelids were suddenly too heavy to keep open. Her shoulders slumped as she melted back down into the pillows behind her. Sleep sounded like a wonderful idea.

* * *

The beeping of the machine woke her. She was alone this time. They must have underestimated her body’s metabolism again, whatever that meant. This time, she was hooked up to only one IV, the one giving the drugs. Maya hadn’t recognized Lincoln’s name, meaning he wasn’t with the others she had mentioned. But these Mountain Men had torn her away from him; he had to be here somewhere. She needed to find Lincoln. Without Bellamy.... No, she refused to think it. She needed to find Bellamy, too.

She eased the needle out of her arm as she sat up, looking around. They had moved her out of that white room and into a room full of beds. There was another person in a bed two down from hers but the rest were empty. The man was asleep or unconscious, his dark skin just as translucent as Maya’s had been.

She climbed out of her bed and steadied herself on the medical cart next to it as she searched it for some gauze to wrap around the hole in her arm from the needle. She was still a little light-headed but that seemed to be more from the drugs than the blood loss.

She was cautious of her leg as she walked over to the bedside of the other occupant in the room, picking up his medical chart from where it lay beside him. Paul Tilling. She riffled through his belongings in the drawer next to him, finding a card like Bellamy and her mom had on the Ark, an access badge.

“Well, Mr. Tilling, it looks like you’re going to be helping me escape today.”

She returned his stuff to how she had found it, leaving no trace she had been there. They were going to notice she was missing but it would be better if it took them a while to figure out how.

She used the key card to unlock the door to the room. She pulled it open a crack, listening for people before opening it wider and sticking her head out. The hallway was empty. She quickly left the room and started walking. She didn’t know where she was going or how to even get out of this place but she had spent her entire life hidden away; she had lots of practice at this game.

Noises from down a corridor had her using the key card again to quickly duck into another room, hoping it was empty. She turned around. It was not empty.

A body was suspended upside-down in front of her, clad only in underwear with wires and red tubes dangling from him into machines. No, not red tubes. That was _blood_.

“What are they doing to you?” She stepped closer then froze; the sight behind the body was just as shocking. The room was far from empty. There were hundreds upon hundreds of cages, each one containing a person.

An alarm blared, echoing throughout the infinite room. They must have realized she had gone missing! Her eyes darted around frantically, spotting another door across the room. She ran to it, hitting the button on the wall beside it to make it open and jumping through the door the second it opened. She reached through the doorway and pressed the button again to close the doors and the floor opened up beneath her.

Falling dooooooooown. Like Alice through the rabbit hole in the stories Bellamy used to read to her.

Her hands slid along the sides of the chute, searching for purchase and finding none. Her fall was broken when she landed on something not-quite-soft. It groaned. Bodies! She had fallen on people!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The alarm going off was not to warn of Octavia's escape from Medical but of the two Mountain Men being brought in for radiation burns in Inclement Weather.
> 
> And for continuity, my excuse for Maya never mentioning Octavia's disappearance is because she never realized Octavia disappeared. Maya assumed she had been reunited with everyone else yet no one else knew she had also been brought in (or didn't think of her) so she basically slipped through the cracks and was never reported missing. The story of Octavia's life.


	3. Where the Hell Am I?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the version where Octavia ends up in the Harvest Chamber. The previous chapter is the version where Octavia ends up in Quarantine.

* * *

She awoke wrapped in some sort of sterile disposable underwear and bra with a bandage tied carelessly around her leg where she had been shot by the arrow. What the hell? She adjusted the bandage over her wound, seeing that it had been stapled shut. It surprisingly didn’t hurt too badly.

“Where the hell am I?” She rubbed at her eyes as she tried to clear her groggy head, uncertain if it was residual from the poison or if she had been given drugs by…whoever had taken her away from Lincoln.

She was in a cage stacked on top of another cage, surrounded on either side by more cages, each one containing a person. She eased forward, pressing her face against the front of her cage as she looked out. There must have been hundreds of Grounders, all dressed like her, all in their own individual cage. Oh, god! What the hell was happening?!?

She spotted Anya across from her, in a cage down on the floor level. “Anya!”

Anya’s head lifted at hearing her name, seeing it was Octavia. She coldly turned her head away.

“Anya! Where’s Lincoln?”

Anya ignored her, but the person in the cage next to her didn’t. “ _Shof op!_ ”

Octavia didn’t know very many words and phrases in Lincoln’s language yet but she recognized the tone telling her to be quiet. A door beeped and there was a sudden, palpable fear spread throughout the cavernous room as two men entered, one in a uniform and one in a lab coat.

She hadn’t been raised in secret for sixteen years without knowing how to be invisible. She shrank back in her cage, tucking herself smaller as she calmed her breathing and settled her heartbeat. They walked past her cage, stopping at the one across from her.

“No! No! No!” The Grounder cried as they opened his cage, dragging him out and stabbing him in the arm with a needle. He was just a young boy, no more than thirteen or fourteen. “No! No!”

The Grounder collapsed unconscious and was carried over to an open area where he was laid out on the floor. They buckled his legs to some sort of contraption and began plugging wires and IVs across his body. The guard then walked over to a remote while the lab tech walked over to a monitor and began typing commands into it. The guard pushed a button on the remote and the Grounder was lifted slowly into the air by his feet until he was dangling upside down. The guard and the lab tech then promptly left the room.

“I am not afraid,” Octavia whispered to herself. She was terrified. “I am not afraid.” She concentrated on her breathing and began reciting stories in her head as she tried to calm herself down. She was smart. She could figure this out.

* * *

The guard and the lab tech returned a while later to remove the unconscious boy from their torture machine.

“This one’s almost done for,” the guard spoke. “Should I put it back through for another round or toss it?”

“Nah, just toss it,” the lab tech replied. “We’ve got extra this week and the Reapers enjoy a live one every now and again.”

The guard bent down and picked up the unconscious boy.

“Wait.” The lab tech hurried over to the guard’s side with a scalpel.

He made an incision in the boy’s forearm and extracted something. Octavia’s hand went to her own forearm. There was something embedded underneath the newly healed scar from where she had cut herself with Lincoln’s poisoned dagger.

The lab tech threw the object into a dish with a clatter and the guard moved away to a door on the other side of the room. He pressed a button next to it and the door opened. He unceremoniously tossed the boy through the doorway and then pressed the button again. The doors shut and a clatter was heard on the other side.

That was the way out.

The guard and the lab tech left the room and Octavia began to implement her plan. She would need to remove the device in her arm and get through the door. Once through the door, she would figure it out from there. Right now, she needed to figure out how to get out of her cage.

Her eyes fell to the bandage on her thigh. She moved it aside, exposing the healing arrow wound. She glanced at her fingernails, surprised to see them clean for once. She looked down at her leg and chose the staple on the closest end, the one that looked to be doing the least amount of work holding the wound together and would be easiest for her to access.

She pried her fingernail under the center of the staple and gently lifted up, surprised at how easily it popped out. She carefully straightened the staple. She had never been more thankful for all those hours of boredom she’d spent ironically teaching herself to pick locks. Bellamy seemed to have known it was therapeutic for her and had brought her new locks to play with whenever he could. She never asked how he got them; she didn’t want to know. She popped out a second staple, the one on the other end of her wound.

She wriggled her fingers through the holes on her cage and worked the staples into the lock, closing her eyes as she scraped around, concentrating on the mechanism inside the lock, keeping her breathing calm and even like Lincoln had been teaching her.

 _Click!_ Her eyes popped open. She’d done it. These locks were ridiculously simplistic and she felt a little guilty at how easy it was. She shoved up at the bottom of the lock, knocking it loose and then eventually off the door. She was free. She kicked open the door and climbed out.

Anya finally turned to look at her again, defiance in her eyes; she would never ask for Octavia to free her. Even then, Octavia wasn’t sure how much time she had. She needed to get out of here. She needed to find Lincoln. She needed to know if there were any other survivors out there. She needed to know if Bellamy was still alive. She picked up the bloodied scalpel that had been used on the boy and sliced along the older scar line on her arm to get to the device implanted below. She pried it out and tossed it in the metal dish with the other one.

Okay, now she could focus on getting everyone else out.

An alarm blared, echoing throughout the infinite room. They must have caught her somehow! She ran to the red button on the wall and pressed it, jumping through the doors the second they opened. She reached through the doorway and pressed the button again to close the doors and the floor opened up beneath her.

Falling dooooooooown. Like Alice through the rabbit hole in the stories Bellamy used to read to her.

Her hands slid along the sides of the chute, searching for purchase and finding none. Her fall was broken when she landed on something not-quite-soft. It groaned. Bodies! She had fallen on their bodies!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The alarm going off was not to warn of Octavia's escape from her cage but of the two Mountain Men being brought in for radiation burns in Inclement Weather.
> 
> And for continuity, my excuse for them not noticing Octavia's disappearance is because shortly after, Clarke runs through and rescues Anya. Plus with the overflow of Grounders and that she took out her tracking device, she basically slipped through the cracks and was never reported missing. The story of Octavia's life.


	4. We Have to Do Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Octavia rescues an unlikely Ally.

* * *

Octavia was on a pile of bodies! She tried to move off them and one of them groaned again. She pulled him up, just a boy still, no more than fourteen.

“You’re alive!” The rest of the bodies obviously were not.

He moaned.

“Come on. We gotta get out of here.”

She climbed over the side of the bin she landed in and then reached back in to haul the boy up and out. He tried to help but he was impossibly weak and fumbling. She left him propped up on the bin while she went to a pile of clothes nearby. She sorted through them, grabbing clothing she hoped might fit and guessing at the boot sizes.

“Come on,” she said again as she hurried back over to his side, shoving the clothes at him. She finished dressing before him and helped him put his shirt on.  “Let’s go.”

The longer they stuck around, the faster her heart pounded. She was surprised they hadn’t been caught yet. They needed to get away from here and out of these tunnels. Lincoln had warned her about the Reapers and these tunnels were their home.

She helped him through the tunnel, away from a door at the far end. That was definitely the wrong way. She half-carried, half-dragged the boy until the tunnel split in two. She remembered the map in Lincoln’s journal. Now she wasn’t feeling so embarrassed obsessing over his drawings and studying them for hours on end. She closed her eyes, imagining his map, seeing the lines snaking around on the paper as she tried to figure out her place in it all. It wasn’t going to do any good when she didn’t even have a starting point for reference.

Noises from down the tunnel to her left startled her. She snatched the boy by his shirt and yanked him down the tunnel on the right that didn’t have noises coming from it. He stumbled over the uneven ground and whimpered as his ankle twisted.

“ _Shove off_ ,” she whispered, hoping that meant “be quiet” in _Trigedasleng_. Lincoln had told her only the warriors spoke English so she wasn’t certain this boy could understand her.

The noises grew closer. Reapers! She practically picked the boy up as they ran down the tunnel, trying to get as far away as possible. She had taken the right tunnel to start with so every time she came to a choice in routes, she kept picking right. Eventually, the noises faded until it was only their breathing and an occasional whine of pain from the boy. There was no lighting down this particular stretch of tunnel so it was either forward toward a glimmer of light in the distance or back through the bending, twisting darkness.

The glimmer of light proved to be another tunnel, this one with light fixtures on the ceilings and walls. They walked for another half hour in silence, the boy’s arm over Octavia’s shoulder and her arm wrapped around his waist as she dragged him on toward freedom. Her leg throbbed but her heart ached worse.

“What’s your name?” she asked. “ _Ai laik Okteivia_.”

“Artigas.”

“ _Trikru?_ ” If he was part of Lincoln’s clan, then maybe she could get him to take her to Lincoln’s people and ask for their help in getting him and the rest of their people back.

He nodded, eyeing her warily.

She tried to remember more _Trigedasleng_ words Lincoln had taught her. “ _Tondisi?_ ” That was the name of the village Lincoln grew up in.

The boy nodded again and began speaking rapidly.

“I…I don’t understand you. I’m sorry.”

“ _Skaikru!_ ” He spat at her and started hobbling away from her.

“Wait! We can help each other.” She took his arm again even as he tried fighting her off. “We have to do something to save them!”

He was too weak to protest and she took advantage of that, forcing him along with her down the tunnel. He didn’t speak to her again but he at least stopped struggling. An unfamiliar scent stopped her in her tracks. Moisture in the air, but different from the damp humidity of the tunnels. Rain.

“We’re almost there!” She inhaled deeply. “Can’t you smell it?”

He didn’t respond, whether it was because he didn’t understand her or because he didn’t like her. She followed the smell of rain and fresh air, letting her nose lead them out of the tunnels and into the drizzling daylight.

“We did it.” She smiled proudly, turning to look at the boy. He was leaning against a boulder, pale and slumped over, his arms wrapped around himself and his head bowed in exhaustion. “You’re taking me with you to your village.”

He lifted his head with a weary heaviness and glanced at her in confusion. 

She sighed. He really didn’t understand her. She pointed at herself and then at him and pretended to eat. 

He nodded back.

She smiled, taking that as agreement that he might allow her to feed him, and helped him back to his feet again. It was a start. They still weren’t far enough away from the Mountain for her to feel comfortable making camp yet, but now she wasn’t so alone anymore. From the stories Lincoln had told her about the Mountain Men, the Grounders didn’t have any idea what was really going on in there. She needed to tell them the truth and she needed their help to free everyone trapped in Mount Weather, including Lincoln. Especially Lincoln.

As to what had happened to everyone else, she had to believe they were still out there somewhere, safe and alive.

 


	5. I Will Be Right Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Octavia and Artigas help each other.

* * *

Octavia wasn’t sure where to go so she just headed Away. Her arrow wound had opened and was trickling blood down her leg and into her boot. Said boot was mismatched with the other, one too big and one too small, creating blisters on her feet. Then there was Artigas. He was too weak, his feet dragging along the ground more than they were stepping across it. She wasn’t certain how much farther she could carry him but every time she tried to stop, he’d whine and attempt to crawl on by himself without her.

They reached a small stream and she tried stopping again. He resisted her. She frowned at him.

“Look, kid. I need a break. I’m weak, I’m hungry, I’m in pain, and I’m tired.”

He pointed across the stream.

“Do you know where we’re at?”

He pointed again.

“Ugh!” She wrapped her arm around his waist and lifted him against her side as she lugged him across the stream. “Now can we stop?”

He pointed again, this time to the right.

“How much farther?” she asked even as she hauled him along in the direction he last pointed. He didn’t respond, not even to point again so she kept moving.

They cleared a small rise and Artigas got a second wind, his steps more solid and his weight less heavy. He pointed to an outcropping, pushing her toward it. It was overgrown with vines and ivy but it would provide temporary shelter.

Once they reached the outcropping, Artigas moved back the vines, revealing a small cave. There was already a fire pit and the ceiling was stained black with smoke. It was one of the many hideaways in the area Lincoln had told her about, providing a haven from the acidic yellow fog.

She propped Artigas up against the back wall and sat down beside him. She carefully took off her shoes, her toes throbbing and her heels covered in blisters, some filled to bursting, others already advanced to the bleeding stage.

She tore off the bottom half of her shirt, wishing she had thought to grab more clothing for them but at least they had jackets. She wrapped her feet in the shirt rags and then moved onto Artigas’ boots. He hadn’t done much walking so his feet weren’t too bad. She switched out their shoes and re-matched them, giving him the bigger pair.

“I’m going to get us some food and water.” She leaned over and pulled his jacket tighter around him. “I will be right back.”

* * *

They spent the night in the little cave. Octavia hadn’t been able to sleep much, her mind consumed with thoughts of Lincoln and Bellamy. She wondered about the others, too, but Clarke had been with them so she knew they would be taken care of wherever they were.

Artigas moaned and cried a lot in his sleep, jarring her awake whenever she started to drift off. She ended up holding him in her arms to still his thrashing and calm his dreams. That’s what Bellamy used to do for her. That’s what Lincoln now did for her. She needed to find them.

Once the morning birds began to chirp, Octavia gave up on sleeping, rolling away from Artigas’ body and moving to stand up. She reached for the cave wall, her fingers gripping the uneven surface as she straightened her left leg under her. She slowly transitioned some of her weight to her right leg, stopping when her stomach heaved in pain. She took a small step and then another before collapsing against the wall and sliding down with a thump.

It woke up Artigas. He began speaking to her rapidly in _Trigedasleng,_ pointing at her leg and at himself.

Octavia groaned and closed her eyes, too weary to figure out what he was telling her. She opened her eyes again when Artigas began shuffling around. He was putting on his boots. He must be crazy to think she was able to go anywhere right now.

He stood up, noticeably feeling better. “ _Set raun._ ” He made a motion with his palm, telling her to stay.

She rolled her eyes.

He unsteadily exited the cave and Octavia felt a momentary panic that he was deserting her.  Even if she wasn’t lost, without him, she had nowhere else to go. She needed him to take her to Lincoln’s village. _A warrior does not worry about what he can’t control._ She sighed. She couldn’t do anything at this moment other than wait for him to come back. If he still wasn’t back by the time she was able to walk again, then she would just figure out a new plan. Right now, she was going to eat some more of the leftover rabbit she had cooked for them last night.

* * *

Artigas came back a short while later, his hands filled with a variety of plants. He dropped them on the ground before pointing at her leg and motioning for her to take off her pants. He was offering to treat her wound.

As she worked the leg of her pants over her seeping arrow wound, Artigas sorted through the plants he’d collected. “ _Laudnes._ ” He passed her a couple of different sprigs and guided them to her mouth. “ _Choj op._ ”

She chewed on the plants, their taste earthy and slightly bitter, trusting they weren’t poisonous as she watched him grinding leaves between two rocks, making a poultice. He brought one of the rocks close to the fire and left it there before moving his attention to her leg.

“Aaah!” He didn’t even touch the half-stapled gash, just the inflamed flesh around it, but it was enough to make Octavia turn to her side, gagging as she tried not to throw up the rabbit.

He tore off a piece of his shirt and laid it out beside her leg before snatching up a handful of leaves. He scooped up some of the bubbling poultice off the rock and into a leaf and then slapped it against her leg, holding it tightly in place.

“Aaaaah!” She screamed, her vision tunneling and swirling. The pain! It burned, it pulsed, it stung, it wept. 

* * *

She must have blacked out. She sat up, looking around the cave. Artigas was smiling at her from across the burned out fire.

“We go now.” The damn brat spoke English.

“You’ll take me to _Tondisi_?”

He nodded.

She inspected her wound, moving aside the remnants of Artigas’ shirt and lifting up the leaves that still covered it. Whatever Artigas used had worked and the swelling had gone down. She re-wrapped the wound before pulling her pants back up.

“How much farther?”

He shrugged. Either he didn’t know or he truly didn’t speak much English.

She stood up slowly, feeling better than she had in the morning, but not by much. Artigas moved over to her side and slipped his arm around her waist, helping her out of the cave and into the sunlight.


	6. No One Escapes the Mountain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter. It turned into an Octavia & Artigas bromance but we finally get to meet Indra and Nyko.

* * *

They trekked on all through the remainder of the day with Octavia trusting Artigas to lead them in the right direction and Artigas trusting Octavia to keep him alive. They stopped often, both too injured and weak to push the other further than necessary. They didn’t talk much, neither speaking much of the other one’s language, but Octavia was used to the silence anyway. As dusk started to fall, Artigas signaled for them to stop again, pointing ahead at some ruins.

“Here?” Octavia asked as she guided him up a set of stairs and leaned him against a pillar. She plopped down next to him and rested her head back, her eyes falling upon a magnificent statue of a man seated on a throne. She gasped in wonderment; the drawing in Lincoln’s journal had been unable to capture the sheer size of the monument. “Is this where we’re stopping for the night?”

He shook his head, bumping it into hers. “Clothes.”

“Clothes?” She was confused. “Oh! You mean _close_.”

He nodded and pointed off in the distance toward what she assumed must be _Tondisi_ before his eyes started to drift shut. His head lolled onto her shoulder and she didn’t move, letting the boy sleep. He was exhausted and half dead and they had traveled an impossible number of miles over the last two days with only a couple of rabbits to share for fuel.

She shifted her right leg; the throbbing pain from this morning was seeping back. She knew it was infected and she wasn’t certain how much farther she might be able to go.

She waited a few minutes more until she neared the point where she wouldn’t be able to stand up again. She nudged his head off her shoulder. “All right, Kid. Time to get up and get moving again.”

He mumbled and groused but climbed unevenly to his feet. He rested one hand on the pillar behind her, holding out the other to assist her to her feet.

“ _Mochof_.” She thanked him as she stood, her legs trembling to support her once more.

“ _Pro_.” He grinned widely at her before they re-assumed their positions as each other’s crutch and hobbled on toward the village.

The farther they walked, the heavier Artigas became until she was once again dragging him along. She was in worse shape than before; her leg wound was oozing and her boots were moist with her blood, her muscles were quaking and exhaustion clouded her mind until her only focus was on the next step forward.

They arrived at the opening to the bottom of a small ravine and Artigas pointed down it. She lugged him cautiously onward, the embankment rising up on both sides making her feel trapped and cornered. Artigas became limp in her arms and she stopped to tilt his head back and check on him. He was merely unconscious, having finally lowered his defenses now they were so near to his home.

“You know, you’ve not been much help.” She grumbled as she continued hauling him through the ravine.

They approached a wall blocking their path and Octavia drew to a stop when she heard rustling above her. She was being watched. Her eyes darted about fearfully as she pulled Artigas tighter into her embrace and straightened her stance.

“ _Ai laik Okteivia kom Skaikru_ and I have something you want!” she shouted.

Warriors stepped out to the edges of the ravine, their arrows and spears pointed at her as they towered above her on all sides. _I am not afraid_. She tightened her grip on Artigas. _I am not afraid_. Now would be a good time for the kid to wake up.

Movement at the gate in front of her drew her attention. A woman stepped forward exuding a hypnotizing elegance and power. Her face was tattooed and deeply battle scarred. She was a victor and a ruler, a warrior goddess straight from the myths Bellamy used to read to her on the Ark.

“ _Ai laik Indra kom Trigeda. Haukom yu kamp raun hir?_ ” The woman spoke.

Her name was Indra and she was from Lincoln’s clan but Octavia wasn’t able to understand much more than that. Indra began to approach her, one of her guards trailing behind. Octavia was mesmerized by the crescent-shaped tattoo cupping Indra’s right eye, focusing on it as she tried to remain conscious.

Indra repeated her question in _Gonasleng_. “I said, ‘why are you here,’ Octavia of the Sky People?”

Octavia grabbed a fistful of Artigas’ hair and pulled his head back so Indra could see. “To save both our people from the Mountain.”

“ _Hod op_ ,” Indra commanded her guards as they stepped forward threateningly, uncertain what Octavia had done to the boy. “Is he still alive?” she asked Octavia.

“Ye . . . yes,” she stammered out, a chill settling into her bones. She willed herself to stay awake. Now was not the time to pass out. “We escaped . . . from the Mountain.”  She blinked a couple of times. “. . . where they have both our people captive.”

Indra’s sharp features swirled before her, zooming closer as she spoke. “No one escapes the Mountain.” 

* * *

She woke up warm and cozy, clean and refreshed. She was still in pain but it was the bearable afterthought sort. She didn’t want to open her eyes, imaging herself back in Lincoln’s cave, snug beneath his furs.

“You’re feeling better.” A gruff voice jarred her roughly from her daydream.

Her eyes shot open, landing upon a giant of a man with a full beard and long, braided hair. His face was tattooed and scarred, like Indra’s. “Who are you?” She glanced around the tiny hut, herbs and plants dangling like decorations across every available surface. There was no one else inside the small room. “Where’s Artigas?”

“I’m Nyko,” he said with a raspy accent.

The name sounded familiar and Octavia remembered Lincoln telling her about his friend, the village’s healer. “Is Artigas okay?” she asked as she moved to sit up, discovering she had been changed into a clean tank top and panties.

“He’s alive.” Nyko passed her a stack of clothing. “You saved his life. That’s why I helped you.”

She swung her legs over the side of the bed, relieved when her wound didn’t retch in protest. She inspected Nyko’s handiwork; it no longer looked infected and had started to heal. “How long have I been here?”

“A day.” Nyko politely turned his back on her and busied himself with something on a table.

Octavia hastily began to dress, standing up too fast and toppling back onto the bed. “You know Lincoln?”

“Lincoln was my friend,” he said, rummaging through whatever was on the table.

“He’s in the Mountain.” She finally got the pants on, frustratingly out of breath by the simple task. “With Anya and hundreds of others.”

“Indra already told you; no one escapes the Mountain.”

“Artigas and I did.” She pulled the shirt over her head, leaving the tank top on underneath. She was thankful to find socks and quickly tugged them on before picking up her boots. It was the same too-small pair she had taken from Mount Weather. “They'll kill him. Please. You said Lincoln is your friend. We have to do something.”

“I did do something.  I saved your life,” He said irately, turning around to face her. “Because of Lincoln, our clan is now vulnerable.”

“We have to do something,” Octavia said again as she eased off the bed and onto her feet. “They have your people captive.”

“You can stand. Good.” Nyko moved across the small room to the door and held it open. “Because now you should leave.” He gestured for her to exit.

She grabbed the jacket off the bed and limped past Nyko, her heart pounding furiously as she refrained from screaming at him to help her. It would do no good and probably get her killed. Lincoln had told her how those lost to the Mountain were considered necessary sacrifices for living in its abundant shadow.

Once outside, she stood in what she assumed was the middle of the village, a tall pole sticking out to mark the center.  She slowly put the jacket on, uncertain where to go.

Nyko brushed past her. “Come.”

She followed him through the eerily quiet village as he led her past more huts and shadowed buildings, the residents still slumbering away in the morning twilight hours.  Nyko never slowed his pace, forcing Octavia to test out the limits of her healing injury. They soon arrived at the statue, much closer today than it seemed when she had first traveled its distance with Artigas. He stopped and turned, brandishing a sword.

She sighed in defeat. “If you're gonna kill me, get it over with.”

“You proved yourself well, Octavia of the Sky People. We'll let you live.” Nyko held out the sword to her.

She accepted the sword, tears filling her eyes as she recognized the hilt. She thought it had been lost after the Mountain Men had taken her away from Lincoln.

“Here.” He held out his other hand, another familiar sight resting in his palm. It was the strap of her day pack, Lincoln’s horn still attached to the outside.

She took the bag and slung it over her head and across her body, blinking rapidly as a tear trickled along the side of her nose. She reached inside her bag, feeling the familiar spine of Lincoln’s journal and pulled it out, her hand caressing the cover. “ _Mochof,_ ” she whispered through her tears.

“More _Skaikru_ have set up camp about a day from here.” He pointed at the journal. “I marked it on the map for you.”

She nodded, wiping away her tears and swallowing down her mounting despair over Lincoln’s and Bellamy’s fates. The new camp might be where Clarke had moved everyone after the battle or it might be survivors from the Ark, but if Bellamy were still alive, she knew she would find him there. Nyko had given her a shred of hope.

“Lincoln was a good man,” Nyko said softly. “He was my brother.” He turned around and strode silently back toward the village, leaving Octavia alone with only her sword and her stubbornness to protect her. _I am not afraid._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this chapter, the story rejoins canon at Many Happy Returns.


End file.
